When I Was A Donk With Jon Turner

In this series, Card Player asks top pros to rewind back to their humble beginnings and provide insights regarding the mistakes, leaks, and deficiencies that they had to overcome in order to improve their games.

Jon Turner got hooked on poker during the boom while attending North Carolina State University. After moving to Las Vegas, he become one of the highest-ranked online tournament players in the world. To date, he has amassed more than $7.5 million in online earnings.

Turner has also had success in live tournaments, racking up nearly $1.7 million in cashes. Turner has made eight World Series of Poker final tables, and most recently finished fifth in the $10,000 no-limit 2-7 draw lowball event at the 2015 summer series. Turner is also the co-author of Winning Poker Tournaments One Hand at a Time.

Here, Turner admits that one of the biggest leaks in his career happened off the tables.

The biggest mistake I made in my career has nothing to do with a hand I played at the table. My biggest donk move was the fact that, early on, I would loan money to other poker players under the assumption that I would one day get that money back.

There were times when I had money online and someone needed a quick transfer or something and promised me they were going to pay me back in a couple days. Well, it’s been eight years in some cases and I’m still waiting.

Some people are just down on their luck. Some are good players with leaks. Some are players with money that for whatever reason they can’t access at the time. You think you know someone very well and are even good friends with someone, but once money is involved, people change. Every once in a while I’ll get some money back here or there, but those instances are few and far between.

It used to be very tilting to play in a big buy-in tournament and see a couple of guys who owed me money playing as well. But over the years, I’ve learned to not let that affect me. I think about game I’m playing, and I worry about collecting debts later on.

Some people who owe me money have left the poker world entirely, but to be honest, they are the ones who are paying me back for the most part, because at least they have an outside job and can now afford to repay me.

Nowadays, and for the last five or six years really, I don’t loan money to poker players. I just don’t do it anymore. My advice to any younger players who make a big score is to just ignore all of those people that inevitably come up to you with their hand out. Get really good at saying no. ♠